


Silence

by EdmondJames_Dantes



Category: A Quiet Place (2018), NCIS
Genre: A Quiet Place Spoilers, Alternate Universe - Alien Invasion, Horror, M/M, Spoilers, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 23:40:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14580207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdmondJames_Dantes/pseuds/EdmondJames_Dantes
Summary: It's been a long day, but the night is only just starting.





	Silence

Tony thuds down onto the couch, hands on his face, tears finally breaking through his determination to be strong.

Tali is still crying and screaming behind the closed door to her new bedroom.

But Tony just can't take it any longer. Nothing he says or does is having any effect; at least, no _good_ effect.

He shudders, agony wracking through him at his own stupid helplessness to look after one little girl who means the world to him.

Tony sniffles, then snorts snot back up his nose. _Gross!_ he thinks, as disgusted with himself as is possible.

He shakes his head, wipes the tears away with his fingers, and then again with the backs of his hands. _I'll wash my face, have something to eat, and then I'll try again._ There's nothing else to be done. As much as her cries pain him, he needs a quick break.

Tony stands up, wiping his damp palms on his jeans, then stills. There's a loud pitter-patter rustling sound climbing up the building of their apartment, like an animal moving very, very quickly, but it doesn't sound like any kind of raccoon that Tony's ever heard before. _Does Paris even have raccoons?_

It sounds loud, and Tony judges that it must be on the outside of Tali's bedroom wall by now.

Tali stops crying.

In her sudden silence, terror grips Tony. Irrational, unfounded, unjustifiable terror. There's no true reason for it. Nothing but gut feeling keeping Tony frozen still, as if even moving an inch could bring about the end of the world.

Then there's a slow creak that turns into a thunderous crash inside Tali's room. Nothing that a little girl is capable of. It sounds like the wall of their apartment has been ripped open. 

Tony's heart stops. Whatever it is, his little girl is stuck between it and him.

He mentally buries his fear, and reaches down to pull his little back-up pistol out of his ankle holster and as quickly as he dares, he quietly, carefully, pads in his socks across the wooden floor to Tali's closed bedroom door.

Normally he would kick it open, but a thousand thoughts in his racing mind warn him against it. What if he kicks it open into Tali? Or what if he startles the wild animal into attacking her? Maybe it would drag her away to eat later in some safe place where Tony can't shoot it to smithereens? 

Instead, aiming his gun to chest height (well aware that any lower and he risks hitting Tali) Tony slowly twists the handle, exerting just enough force that the door slowly swings silently open on its newly oiled hinges.

Tony stares in disbelief.

There's a monster standing in the middle of his daughter's lavender bedroom.

The demonic head turns toward him, and a dozen strange flaps of black skin lift up where a human would have nose and eyes and hair. 

Then skin - no lips to be seen - peels back over a shark-like jaw full of gleaming teeth and fangs and even more teeth, the maw stretching wide in an endlessly starving smile, aimed at Tony.

A whimper sounds from the side, and the creature's head snaps round, somehow focused on Tali despite the lack of eyes.

Tony pulls the trigger, and pulls the trigger and pulls the trigger, hastily stumbling back, and it's his very last bullet sliding into one of the strange flaps of skin on its head that slows the monster just enough for Tony drop his gun, pull his knife, and slam it into the creature's throat in its lunge for him.

It gurgles, blood seeping from its throat and spurting from its horrifying mouth and the skin flap where the bullet had sunk in, and it sinks to the floor, taking Tony's knife with it, a mess of blood and inhuman spindly limbs.

For a moment Tony simply stares at it. It looks like the love-child of a Xenomorph from the _Alien_ trilogy and a gigantic spider and a human being, and even now dead, it scares him, a cold chill sliding down his spine.

It just can't be real, but it must be, because Tony wants so badly to _wake up_ but can't.

He takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly, and spares a glance at Tali.

Her face is white, her eyes scared wide open, her hand pressed over her mouth. Tali's still staring in horror at the monster on the floor.

Tony looks back at the creature. He's seen enough horror movies to know better than to _trust_ that it's dead. He cautiously walks over, considering his options, then quickly darts forward, yanks out the knife, only to swing it down into the throat again, and again, and again...

His arms are literally dripping with blood and flesh and god alone knows what by the time he's done, but the monster's head lies at his knees, fully severed from the body. _Good luck surviving that,_ Tony thinks viciously. But an old quote drifts into his mind, _Nuke the entire site from orbit,_ and fear trickles back into his mind, claws digging out of the pit he buried it in.

Tony looks to Tali.

His daughter is staring at him, afraid, but he can tell, it's not fear of him, nor of what he's done.

"I think it was _listening_ to us, Abba," she whispers.

Tony swallows hard, and looks back to the demon head with its strange flaps of skin, to the infinite teeth, and to the strange alien body, so different to everything he's ever seen before on Mother Earth. He remembers the speed it had moved with, no grace but all predator, and Tony looks to the gaping hole in the wall of his daughter's bedroom, the strength it must have used in ripping it apart.

A soft breeze from the early night weaves through the hole and into the room, brushing Tony's face.

The gentle wind, once comforting like on a car ride with the radio playing his favourite songs and the windows down, now makes him feel vulnerable. Exposed.

Anything could be out there. There could be more monsters like the one Tony just killed. 

_Nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure._

The sun's starting to set, and the sight of it triggers some instinct to _move_.

Tony stands, tucking his knife away into his belt. He strips off his shirt. The arms and belly of it are saturated, but he uses the back of it to wipe off the worst of the creature's blood from his skin anyway. Then he grabs Tali, and keeps her at his side as he quickly chucks on another shirt, jersey, and jacket. He'd love a shower, or even to wash and rinse thoroughly, but something tells him that he's already running out of time. He'll just have to take the risk that the creatures don't also hunt by scent.

He leaves off his shoes but puts on a second pair of socks, doing the same for his daughter, and he pulls one of his woollen jerseys over her head for her to wear as a second, outer dress. 

"I think you were right," Tony tells Tali softly, barely breathing the words out, directly into her ear. "I think it was listening to us." _I think your sudden scared silence is the only thing that kept you alive,_ he doesn't say. "So I love you and I promise I'll keep you safe, but no more talking, okay?" 

She nods, barely, and Tony feels it against his shoulder more than he sees it. Her hand presses oddly against his chest and he draws back just far enough to see it. Her two middle fingers are tucked down into her palm, and the other two pointing straight up and the thumb out: _I love you._ A sign that Tony had had to google after arriving in Paris, because Gibbs had used it to say goodbye to him and Tali both, a lifetime ago. Tony had taught the true meaning to Tali, unable to stand seeing it every time she said goodbye to him at preschool. 

Tony smiles at Tali, knowing it's coming out as more pained than intended, but he signs back, _I love you,_ before he stands up, lifting his girl with him and settling her on his left hip. 

Then he walks out of their new apartment, the apartment that was meant to be their new home. He pauses only to grab his ever-ready gear bag, large and heavy with emergency supplies (food and water, clean clothes, tools and weapons), from its home by the entrance and pulls it on, trying to be quiet as he fastens it into place.

He opens and closes the front door as quietly as he can, wincing at every squeak. Slowly and silently, Tony pads away into the encroaching dark. He's got a good torch in his bag but he'll use the street lights for as long as possible. He needs to conserve the battery. 

But even just walking down the street, already in the distance he can hear screams as other people aren't as lucky as he and Tali were.

Tony presses his lips to Tali's temple, her cheek, the corner of her mouth, and he cuddles her close and rubs her back as she trembles, silent but warm and alive in his arms, as more and more screams join together in the night.

They are a long way from their friends and family, from Gibbs and Tim and Ellie, from Steve and Chris and Eric, and all of America, but staying in France is no longer an option. There is safety in numbers, and none of his numbers, bar his most important, are with him. _Fleeing from my past doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore,_ Tony thinks wryly. It hadn't been that good of one to start with, he just hadn't realized at the time that he had a better option.

He refuses to consider that Gibbs, that his friends and frat brothers, might already be dead. Murdered by monsters. That definitely isn't an option. Tony forces his thoughts to move on.

He doubts that travel by plane is possible now, that any of the airports will survive these creatures, these monsters, but he hasn't been friends with, been _family_ with Gibbs for all these years without having gone on a few sailing trips with the man. If Tony can find a boat, a yacht, something big enough to survive the ocean, but small enough to be manned by just the one man...

Tony hugs Tali even closer, wrapping his jacket around her to keep the wind off her back, and he heads for the coast.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry to anyone waiting for updates to any of my other fics, life got in the way. I'm gonna try to take it easy for a bit, so I might get some more writing done on them this month.
> 
> Anyway, I saw the movie 'A Quiet Place' recently, and absolutely loved it, hence was born this little story. I'd like to write some more in this, I've got some ideas and a couple of nights with no plans this week and next, but no promises. 
> 
> I hope you like this little piece, even if it's not quite the usual type of ncis fic :)


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